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Italy and the colonization of the Americas was related to:
* Italian explorers and colonizers serving for other European nations;
* the role played by the Roman Pontiff in Christianizing the
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany (Ferdinando I) expedition to South America was the only tentative foray into colonization by Italians in the centuries after Columbus's discovery.
The Thornton expedition was a 1608 Tuscan expedition under Captain Robert Thornton, an Englishman, who was sent by
New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...
and resolving disputes between competing colonial powers;
* an aborted attempt to create a colony in the Americas, in what is now French Guiana
French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...
, made by the Grand Duchy of Tuscany
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany ( it, Granducato di Toscana; la, Magnus Ducatus Etruriae) was an Italian monarchy that existed, with interruptions, from 1569 to 1859, replacing the Republic of Florence. The grand duchy's capital was Florence. In th ...
in the early 1600s;
* a tentative to create a colony in the Antilles by an Italian Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller of Malta (then part of Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
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, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
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, demographi ...
).
Grand Duchy of Tuscany expedition
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany (Ferdinando I) expedition to South America was the only tentative foray into colonization by Italians in the centuries after Columbus's discovery.
The Thornton expedition was a 1608 Tuscan expedition under Captain Robert Thornton, an Englishman, who was sent by Ferdinando I
Ferdinando may refer to:
Politics
* Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1549–1609)
* Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1610–1670)
* Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany (1663–1713), eldest son of Cosimo ...
of Tuscany
Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze'').
Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...
to explore northern Brazil
The North Region of Brazil ( pt, Região Norte do Brasil; ) is the largest region of Brazil, corresponding to 45.27% of the national territory. It is the second least inhabited of the country, and contributes with a minor percentage in the national ...
and the Amazon River
The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river system in the world in comparison to the Nile.
The headwaters of t ...
and prepare for the establishment of a settlement in northern coastal South America, which would serve as a base to export Brazilian wood to Renaissance Italy
The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...
.
The area that Thornton considered as a possible site of a Tuscan or Italian colony now lies in modern French Guiana
French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...
, near Cayenne
Cayenne (; ; gcr, Kayenn) is the capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and Overseas department, department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Cayenne River on the Atlantic Oc ...
, which would be colonised by France in 1630.
In the first years of the 17th century Ferdinando I of Tuscany evaluated the possibility of a colony in Brasil and gave captain Thornton a caravel
The caravel (Portuguese: , ) is a small maneuverable sailing ship used in the 15th century by the Portuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. The lateen sails gave it speed and the capacity for sailing win ...
le and a tartane
A tartane (also tartan, tartana) was a small ship used both as a fishing ship and for coastal trading in the Mediterranean. They were in use for over 300 years until the late 19th century. A tartane had a single mast on which was rigged a large la ...
for an expedition in 1608. Thornton sailed for one year, reaching Guyana and Brasil, exploring the Amazon and Orinoco river but in February of that year the Grand Duke died and in Florence, no one thereafter considered establishing an overseas colony.
Indeed Thornton was ready to sail back to the area between the rivers Orinoco and Amazon in the summer of 1609 with nearly one hundred Italian settlers from Livorno
Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...
and Lucca
Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957.
Lucca is known as one o ...
to create a settlement in the bay of actual Cayenne
Cayenne (; ; gcr, Kayenn) is the capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and Overseas department, department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Cayenne River on the Atlantic Oc ...
, but the project was scrapped. Thornton's galleon 'Santa Lucia' returned to Italy in 1609 with plenty of information (after exploring the area between Trinidad island and the delta of the Amazon river), some indigenous natives of the Americas and a few tropical parrots.
Malta's Knights Hospitaller
In the 17th century Malta was under the rule of the king of Sicily, who gave the direct control of the island to the Knights Hospitaller. Because of this rule Malta was considered an "Italian State" (like the Republic of Venice or the Grand Duchy of Tuscany)
Giovanni Paolo Lascaris
Giovanni Paolo Lascaris di Ventimiglia e Castellar ( Maltese: ''Laskri'') (28 June 156014 August 1657) was an Italian nobleman and Grand Master of the Knights of Malta.
Early life
Lascaris was born on 28 June 1560, the second son of Giannetto ...
, Italian nobleman and Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic Church, Catholic Military ord ...
of Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
, was interested in colonial affairs and in 1651 bought the island of Saint-Christophe, along with the dependent islands of Saint Croix
Saint Croix; nl, Sint-Kruis; french: link=no, Sainte-Croix; Danish and no, Sankt Croix, Taino: ''Ay Ay'' ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorpo ...
, Saint Barthélemy
Saint Barthélemy (french: Saint-Barthélemy, ), officially the Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Barthélemy, is an overseas collectivity of France in the Caribbean. It is often abbreviated to St. Barth in French, and St. Barts in English ...
, and Saint Martin, from the failing Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique The Company of the American Islands (french: Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique) was a French chartered company that in 1635 took over the administration of the French portion of ''Saint-Christophe island'' (Saint Kitts) from the Compagnie de Saint- ...
. The Knights' ambassador to the French court, Jacques de Souvré, signed the agreement.
The Order's proprietary rights were confirmed in a treaty with France two years later: while the king would remain sovereign, the Knights would have complete temporal and spiritual jurisdiction on their islands. The only limits to their rule were that they could only send French knights to govern the islands, and upon the accession of each new King of France they were to provide a gold crown worth 1,000 écus.{{cite journal, last=Allen, first=David F., url=http://mhs.eu.pn/cc/CC08.html, title=The Social and Religious World of a Knight of Malta in the Caribbean, c. 1632-1660, journal=Libraries and Culture, date=1990, volume=25, issue=2, pages=147, via=Malta Historical Society, access-date=11 April 2014, url-status=dead, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413125220/http://mhs.eu.pn/cc/CC08.html, archive-date=13 April 2014 In 1665, after Lascaris's death, the Knights sold their islands back to France, ending their brief colonial project.
References
Bibliography
* Ridolfi, R. ''Pensieri medicei di colonizzare il Brasile'', in «Il Veltro» (luglio-agosto 1962). Roma, 1962See also
*European colonization of the Americas
During the Age of Discovery, a large scale European colonization of the Americas took place between about 1492 and 1800. Although the Norse had explored and colonized areas of the North Atlantic, colonizing Greenland and creating a short ter ...
* Italian diaspora in the Americas
European colonization of the Americas
History of Italy by topic